The small core force (1/D Coy, 1/C Coy and Eng/B Coy) assisted by the auxiliaries crossed the river and established a position in the Port town area by turn 19. The bulk of the core secured the Riverfork region by turn 22. Figure 1 picks up at turn 27. A brief summary of the intervening turns is in order.
The OPFOR defense in the southern town adjacent to the Airfield includes a light artillery battery that has been the target of sporadic fire by BB 55 North Carolina's primary guns (they're the ones who can reach).
The core units that took the Port town linked up with the Paratroopers at the southern Depot and continued East to attack the Airfield defenders from the South when the rest of the force is able to hit from the North.
The surviving U.S. Recruits and AT Gun that were part of the southern Depot defense force find themselves cut off from supply and hide in the jungle on the southern edge of the map.
In the North the Green Team crosses the river, hits the scattered defenders (one AA Gun, one Engineer and two or three surviving U.S. Recruits) and takes the villages. Early in this process the OPFOR finds itself with more units requiring supplies than sources of the same (not critically undersupplied but every bit helps). Two of the Green Team artillery batteries relocate South via train and disembark at the Port town, there's too many units moving South on the road along the river for the artillery to be able to deploy in a timely manner.
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| Figure 1 - Second Airfield |
Which brings us back to Figure 1. The M1 75mm artillery is down to six health thanks to our battleship. A light tap from a Marine sends it to the other edge of the Built Up Area (BUA) where 1/C Coy delivers a coup-de-grace. The 37mm M3 AT Gun is then hit by all three FA batteries, attacked by 1/D Coy who advances and links up with the U.S. Marines cutting off the OPFOR's Infantry. Cav/B Sqdn then moves in and annihilates the AT Gun.
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| Figure 2 - Second Airfield |
Next turn, Figure 2 and it's the 37mm M1 AA Bty's turn. Artillery fire, 1/D Coy and Cav/B Sqdn make quick work of the task taking the town and leaving the OPFOR completely out of supply.
Still in turn 28 1/C Coy and one U.S. Marine attack the Recruits garrisoning the Airfield inflicting heavy losses and prompting them to retreat. They will be destroyed by Cav/B Sqdn the following turn. The Marine advances to the Airfield and triggers the secondary objective reward (Figures 3 and 4).
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| Figure 3 - Second Airfield |
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| Figure 4 - Secondary objective |
Figures 5 through 8 illustrate some aspects of a little cheese that I had planned for this playthrough. It comes sooner in the mission than I had anticipated but I found myself in a position where it was helpful. Truth be told I could have used it as soon as I deployed FA/A Bty and 1/A and 1/C Coys.
Ok, enough teasing. Back in turn 23 I bought and deployed three land reconnaissance units, Cav/1st, 2nd and 3rd D Troop equipped with Willys MB M1917 jeeps. Why? Spoilers!
These jeeps are the only land reconnaissance units that only require one Command Point to deploy, everyone else requires at least two. In addition they become unavailable relatively early in the U.S. Pacific campaign, early enough that I won't have the resources to buy them then. If I already have them in my core in an inactive state they stay there. And there's no end date for the availability of repairs. Also if they happen to be killed they can still be revived.
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| Figure 5 - Cavalry, 1st, 2nd and 3rd Troops/D Squadron |
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| Figure 6 - Peekaboo |
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| Figure 7 - Cough, cough, cough |
Now on to what the Figures illustrate:
Figure 5 is the deployment and datasheet;
Figure 6 reveals the out of supply defenders of the southern Depot (I already knew they were there, just couldn't see them to target them and I wasn't about to waste a combat unit to spot them);
Figure 7 is just for laughs but it also demonstrates the ability for two pulses in the same turn, the cloud of exhaust smoke that the jeep belches out every time it starts moving doesn't fit the reconnaissance role;
Figure 8 is more serious: even a puny jeep with a .30-06 machine gun (7.62mm) can with impunity inflict damage on a target that is completely deprived of efficiency but that's not what Figure 8 illustrates; what is displayed is the ability of the reconnaissance unit to provide flanking support and although not the case it can move in two pulses.
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| Figure 8 - Flanking support |
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| Figure 9 - Take off and landing are the most dangerous moments in aviation |
Figures 9 through 11 reveal the fate of the OPFOR's 2nd P40 Warhawk. It gets jumped during turn 17 by both Green Team fighters right when it takes off and is at half efficiency, again during turn 20 and is finally destroyed during turn 24.
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| Figure 10 - Take off and landing are still the most dangerous moments in aviation |
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| Figure 11 - Second OPFOR Fighter shot down |
Figure 12, turn 30, Eng/B Coy was lagging behind in XP and gets tasked with destroying the out of supply surviving defenders of the southern Depot.
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| Fig 12 - Clean up duty |
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| Figure 13 - One last duty |
Finally Figure 13, turns 35 and 36. The OPFOR's last unit on the map is the bunker defending the southwest beach. It has been cut off from supply for quite some time but that shouldn't matter, bunkers don't draw/use supply.
When 1/D Coy and Eng/B Coy reach its vicinity in turn 35 it displays its efficiency as naught, zero, nada. By turn 36 when the Green Team units are able to attack it its efficiency jumps to 7 (and it might continue up to 10, I didn't bother to check).
Well, it won't help it anything because both the Navy and the Field Artillery are on the case and not only cut its efficiency back to zero but also take out half its strength and three points of entrenchment.
The Engineers and the Heavy Infantry finish the job as prescribed by the Field Manuals.
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